Sunshine 5000 Race Report

The Sunshine 5000 is the oldest race in our Canadian Circuit. For the 7^th year, the resort has been hosting a great event, which usually draws the biggest crowd to the Canadian Ski mo scene. With around 30 racers, this year, the event was a success. With great snow, mild weather and a group of great racer and organizers, nothing could really go wrong!

We traveled mid-day friday and made it through just before highway closure due to heavy snowfall between Revelstoke and Golden… We got to Sunshine village in one piece happy to check in at the Sunshine Mountain Lodge (thx to the Resort for great rate)! Sunshine Village has been getting really good snow coverage this year and we were all pleased to see that this year, we would be able to ski the steeper part of the course without being scared for our carbon skis!!! Speaking of carbon skis, it is now really nice to see how much the gear has evolved with the years. At the start line, there was half the crowd with light gear and 6 with full carbon boots. I am so thrilled to see that the sport is growing in our country!!!!

Saturday morning, the weather was just perfect for a race. We gathered at the start line at mid-station just after 9am. The start of this race is always quite interesting since it is relatively flat for an extended period of time and it takes a while for people to really space out. The course was the same as last year with the exception of the Delirium Dive, which has been closed all season due to very low snow coverage.

Reiner took the lead of the race pretty quickly followed by Andrew McNab (2^nd) (Great work sweet heart!). Just behind were James Minifie (3^rd), Alex Wigley (4^th), Ian Gale and Stano Faban, all pretty close one to the other. On my side, I was just behind Stano! I tried very hard to catch up to the 4 guys ahead but it just did not happen that day!

I think it is fair to say that everyone had a great race and we are now building up steam for our big events next month: the World Championships in Claut Italy.

Congrats to Julie Matteau (2^nd), Billie Velisek (3^rd) and Martha Burley (4^th) on the ladies side. Here are the results and a few pictures after the race!

To follow events in Italy, you can check the following link: http://www.claut2011.org/en/